Billy Joel to Appear in ‘Arrow’ Terrorist Storyline

Billy Joel will appear in the Thanksgiving episode of the superhero TV show Arrowin a storyline that involves one of his concerts being targeted in a terrorist attack.

The episode will feature scenes shot at a Joel concert along with sections of his song “No Man’s Land.” It came about after executive producer Marc Guggenheim, a Joel fan, asked the musician for permission to use the material. As a result, viewers will see bad guy Cayden James (played by Michael Emerson) plotting to blow up a concert venue with Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) attempting to stop him.

“For the Thanksgiving episode of Arrow, we wanted Cayden James to threaten a major event at Star City,” Giggenheim told Entertainment Weekly. “A variety of ideas were discussed, but when we settled on a rock concert, I knew it had to be Billy Joel. Having grown up on Long Island – where, as it happens, this episode’s concert footage was taken from – I’ve been a fan of Billy and his music since I was 7 years old. He’s always been an inspiration to me, personally and artistically. I told him as much when I wrote to him to ask for his permission to use his concert footage in our episode, and when he agreed, it was one of the happiest days of my career.”

He added that he had chosen “No Man’s Land,” a track from Joel’s 1993 LP River of Dreams, because he wanted to use an album track and he always liked how the song was performed live. Arrow, currently in its sixth season, can be seen on Thursdays at 9PM ET on the CW.